


female friendships

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Compulsory Femininity, Gen, Trans Female Character, Trans Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Transmisogyny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 19:11:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7519864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allura wants to bond with Pidge and Pidge... isn't too keen on the idea.</p><p>Time to learn a little about themselves in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	female friendships

Allura had never truly had a close friend that was a girl before. When she was learning how to best rule her people for when the throne would be hers, she mostly spent her time around adults such as Coran. (Even if her father and Coran had not had the relationship they did, she would have ended up partially raised by the man regardless.) The one fellow girl she knew regularly was her cousin Romelle (what _did_ happen to Romelle, she still wanted to know), but they had unfortunately not gotten to interact often.

So the only true knowledge that Allura had of female friendships was through what fiction she read. The ideal of a feminine friendship was not something she had really gotten a chance to practice.

At least, until Pidge revealed herself to be a girl.

Said girl (said _trans_ girl, though Allura was still unsure of the significance of that appellation) was currently perched on the couch, tapping away at her computer. “Pidge!” she greeted, marching towards the other with intent, arms locked behind her back as she leaned over top the device. “Are you busy?”

“Yes.”

Undeterred by the fact that Pidge hadn’t even looked up for that response, Allura continued. She had forced the paladins to bond - this was nothing in comparison to that trial. “I was thinking we could do something together! You know, just we girls!”

 _That_ caught her attention, and she glanced up, light glinting off of her glasses before she sighed, folding her laptop and setting it aside. “Alright.” Pidge still sounded a little resigned, but Allura took this for the win it was. “What were you thinking?”

The princess brightened. “Perhaps we could do each other’s hair, and-”

“No.” Allura frowned, unused to being interrupted. “I don’t have enough hair to do anything with-” _and why did she sound so sad, there?_ “and I don’t know enough to do yours.”

Okay, that was one idea struck down, but she had more. “Nails?”

Pidge made a face. “No thanks.”

“What about make-up?”

“Allura, why are all your ideas so _feminine?”_ Pidge was exasperated. “Not that it’s bad, but neither of us are really into that, are we?”

After a pause, the princess had to ruefully agree. “No, I suppose we are not.” Though she had actually been looking forward to all of that, it was not her typical choice in how to entertain herself. She had simply leaned towards such ideas as a result of thinking that was how it SHOULD be.

The paladin relaxed. “If you want to do that, Lance is a better choice.” Huh. Good to know. “But I wouldn’t mind sparring with you, and if you’re up for it…” Her eyes _sparkled._ “What about a lesson in Altean writing?”

Allura returned the younger girl’s smile. “I’d like that, Pidge. But can I still try your hair afterwards?”

“Alright, alright. If you really wanna, I guess so.”

A few hours later, with Pidge nursing both bruises from sparring and a headache from the complicated grammar structure of Altean writing (thank god the lions translated for them), Allura carefully painted the paladin’s nails the same green her lion always wore. Both girls wore pigtails - Allura’s carefully braided - and the princess had long pulled out a bunch of old nightgowns for Pidge to borrow, which she was honestly grateful for.

“…You know, this is actually really fun,” Pidge admitted, watching the intent way the Altean leaned over her hand. “I never got to do this before, with other girls. And I had to be so girly on earth for so long that I really didn’t… want do this.”

Allura looked up at that, slightly confused. “You had to be girly?”

“I’m a trans girl. It… sort of comes with the territory.”

Diligently, the princess painted one last stroke on Pidge’s pinkie, before leaning back and tucking the nail polish brush away. “Forgive me, Pidge, but I am still not certain about what you mean by ‘trans’.”

Pidge hesitated, weighing her words. “On earth, people… assign gender by genitalia. When I was born, everyone said I was a boy, even when I wasn’t. So if you still like things that people think boys should like, like robots and stuff like that…” The girl looked distinctly uncomfortable. “People don’t believe you. You have to be really girly, really stereotypically feminine, or they don’t believe you.”

Allura waited in hushed silence for the other to continue. It took Pidge a moment to gather herself, but she did. “So I had to be really girly on Earth. But here - no one _cares,_ here. I can act how I want and no one will think I’m lying or wrong about being a girl. So I didn’t want to do anything girly or feminine. But this is…” She smiled, shyly. “I liked this. Doing my hair and my nails. Can I keep some of your nightgowns?”

“Of course,” the princess replied automatically, returning the smile.

“Thanks.”

It took a moment of not immensely awkward silence (but some, there was some awkwardness) before Allura could fully gather her thoughts. “I… never really had female friends when I was younger. Male friends, either - I mostly knew adults. But in everything I read, that was how the girls were. They did their hair and their make-up and they talked about boys. Maybe they got rescued by boys if it was that kind of story.”

She sighed. She had never wanted to be one of the rescued girls, as she declared to her father when she was very young. “So when I found out you were a girl… It was all I could think of.” Allura closed her eyes. She could picture herself, in fact, back in the gardens of Altea, reading wherever she went. “It was what girls did. That was what we should do, right?”

She opened her eyes, smile returning. “I do like doing my hair, and make-up can be fun, but it’s not my favorite. Sparring’s always been my preferred activity to do with someone else.”

Pidge snorted, amused at something. “The world’s not so nice to girls. Either we gotta be feminine when we don’t want to, or we’re trying not to be feminine to NOT do what they want us to.”

Allura did see the irony in that, and shook her head. “Some things do transcend cultures.”

There was quiet for a moment as the two thought. It was a comfortable silence, finally broken when Pidge decided her nails were dry enough and laid her hand on Allura’s. “Let’s do a mix.”

The Altean wrinkled her nose, confused. “A mix?”

Pidge nodded. “We can do some things considered girly, like make-up or hair or whatever, but we also do some stuff that we definitely want to do. Like sparring, or pranking the others. Let’s do both. Maybe we’ll find more stuff we like.”

Allura slowly nodded. “Yes. And… perhaps we should invite the boys to that. It does not matter if the activities are ‘girly’-” She actually formed the airquotes, having picked it up from Hunk. “-for anyone of any gender should enjoy them, right? You said Lance likes… this stuff?”

The paladin grinned. “Yeah. Actually…” Allura liked the look on Pidge’s face. “Grab your nail polish kit. Let’s go paint everyone’s nails.”

She lit up. “Yes! And maybe Shiro can do everyone’s eyes! He’s very good at that.”

“Lance’ll do hair.”

“Coran is impeccable at fashion.”

“I want Hunk to teach me how to make cupcakes.”

“Keith… I don’t.” Allura stopped, and giggled. “We can teach Keith fashion. He needs it.”

Pidge beamed. “Sounds fun. Sounds like a slumber party.”

“You know… I’ve always wanted to have one of those.”


End file.
